Mark Darrah, the famously outspoken RPG veteran who steered the Dragon Age ship until his retirement a few years back, predicts Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic will feature a simpler, stripped-down story in response to what he sees as overstuffed writing in BioWare's more recent games.
Talking to Eldorado.gg, Darrah mused on the potential direction of Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic under former Mass Effect lead Casey Hudson's stewardship. Darrah wonders if Hudson could opt for a "KOTOR 3"-type spiritual successor or potentially, "something that looks a little bit more like Mass Effect with the Star Wars IP," adding that, ultimately, he doesn't know what the game will end up looking like. BioWare is obviously not involved, with development duties being handled by Hudson's Arcanaut Studios. That said, Hudson's involvement tells Darrah one thing about Fate of the Old Republic.
"One thing I can be confident of is that it's gonna be really good at cinematic storytelling, because that's something that Casey cares very deeply about," says Darrah "It's something that I am very confident that they will be spending a lot of effort on. So it will be a storytelling game, and it will do its storytelling effectively. In terms of what the structure of the game is around the storytelling, that's actually where I have almost no confidence. I have no idea. But it's like, will it tell a good story? Yeah, I'm really confident that it'll do that."
Asked if Hudson is taking any lessons he learned from his time at BioWare into Fate of the Old Republic, Darrah confirms, "Casey and I have talked," adding, "I think that he definitely is going to be looking at simplifying some of the way that storytelling is done. I think to some degree, you could argue that maybe BioWare has gotten a little self-indulgent in its storytelling. And I think that Casey maybe sees that a little bit as well. So there might be a stripping it back a little bit more towards a more simple hero's journey. I don't know. Maybe I'm putting words in his mouth."
Darrah's hesitation to presume too much aside, Dragon Age: The Veilguard has definitely taken a lot of criticism for its writing in particular, from bad faith takes on diversity in games to genuine disappointment from longtime fans. I'm not sure simplification is necessarily the most important lesson to be learned, but Fate of the Old Republic is in capable enough hands, I'd say.
One thing I'm happy about: Star Wars Fate of the Old Republic boss Casey Hudson is done with 100-hour games: "A lot of players just want to play something and finish it"
